Monthly Food Expenses

[gcal]

I spend way too much on food, something i'm not proud of and it's just for myself.  I'd guesstimate I spend about $600 a month.  I do eat out a lot.  One of my goals this year was to seriously reduce my food budget while still eating healthy. So far i've not been doing too good a job at it!

We spend about twice what you do, but there are 2 of us. I don't worry about it at all. Good food is a luxury we enjoy and can afford. It is sure cheaper than drugs or alchohol or other bad habits.

 

[ganto]

this is the one main question that everyone considering this lifestyle asks. how much does it cost to live like this. i think to myself that there's to many varibles involved. there's thing's that are higher in some areas that can't be prevented like auto ins. in my area it's skyrockets vs someone in a smaller city. everything in LA goes up. then it depends on how the person wants to live in a van rv or car ect ect as well as how frugal that they can be.

 

[Theme57]

When I was living in my car working 12 hour days I usually averaged about 10 a day buying each meal from the store. Morning I would spend about 5 on a good meal consisting of discount to-go food from Safeway, Ralph, and the like. I would drink water and snack on a cliff bar or two during the day. At dinner I would get a soup or meaty dish for later.

Later I decided to adjust my breakfast and mix oatmeal, some peanut butter, yogurt and honey. The costs of each item up front were a little much, but stretched out over a longer period of time and kept me feeling full pretty well. I think this dropped my daily budget between 5 - 7.5 a day in cash give or take. Also I tend to be allergic to soy, apples and a couple other common items so my diet is a bit more limited. This is perfect for someone who isn't as it is less of a factor in regards to budget.

I do want to mention I did not have refrigeration and Los Angeles was pretty hot too. I did not have a way to cook food either. Looking back now if I had refrigeration and a means to cook food while working much less I could probably average the following daily around $5. Although I have yet to get this perfected while still having enough calories for someone sitting down all day or with little activity.

I think it's important to consider activity level as well. If you are working a lot or heavy lifting your budget should reflect that. If not and you mostly sit down all day it should be cheaper as your calorie intake doesn't need to be as large. While working heavily I averaged between 1500 - 1700 a day and although I didn't feel well most of the time for a number of reasons outside of food, I dropped weight pretty quickly as my body became more accustomed to not eating large meals like I had before.

YMMV.

 

[Nomad]

I am very impressed with those here who are eating on the cheap cheap I will have to see what I am spending and eating and get back to you all in a months or so time I will say I camp most of the year as I like the outdoors my major concern is having enough gas monies to change locations every so often for change of scenery. I come back indoors when it gets to cold for me usually some time in Oct.

Yes I am posting to myself I am eating for $75 a month walmart TV dinners from under 2 bucks to others under a buck and top raman mostly drink water but when I just need something different I have them small squirt flavorings tang/grape and I also get some fruit mango apples oranges bananas that's pretty much it.

Things I can get at the side of the road blackberries blueberries salal berries oregon grape wild strawberries elderberry thimbleberries and their new stalks are nice too and a few others dandelions nettles burdock cattail theirs more but many I like are hard to find and you have to be their at the right time of year the ones I listed are in places I know and very abundant as well.

 

[OutdoorFT]

Due to a recent roadblock, I need to start budgeting grocery trips..even though I just spent $28 on junk and soda! In my defense some of it is for my 2 yr old niece so she has small snacks and juice while shes here...and french toast sticks! But I don't spend much more than $300. Month for 2 adults and 5 cats

 

[ArmorAbby]

Awesome thread I've been spending way too much on food, and now that my hours at work have been cut, I have to cut expenses. A Large part of the problem is I never had to worry much about money until now so I have no discipline. I'm also pretty lazy. I've figured that spending money on a Whopper, and then just having water to drink and not get the combo, has been my 'savings' plan when it comes to food...
I have this CostOfFood plan from the USDA site and I'm gonna do what I can to follow it....
Let's see if I can make it longer than three days....

Oh and the mention of Mayo not being in the fridge... it's true, I don't refrigerate my mayo either.. I get squeeze bottles and they're fine.

 

[mert6706]

• Monthly Total
o $159.56

I'm thinking about getting a Coleman 1 or 2 stove burner so I can cook healthier food. Most likely I would be limited to this on the weekends when I'm at parks and out of the city.

My first week living in the Prius was pretty rough in regards to cash, I didn't have much money, and needed it for gas and food. About 20 dollars I think. I ate nothing but Ramen noodles and drove very little. I ate roughly 28 packages of Ramen Noodles which comes out to about $5.88 and the rest was used on gas.

I'm surprised that eating fast food 4 times a week cost so much money, I usually get the dollar menu and keep it under 6 dollars or less each time I go there.

Wow! I'm not out there yet, grateful for this post. It's a real eye-opener. I would have spent way more than necessary or affordable if not for this info. Now I will make a plan and stick to it, thanks for sharing

 

[mert6706]

Someone recently asked me how much I spend in food, decided to post the information here. I was an interesting exercise. I figured I would share my research here.


• Canned Food $1.00 per can
I usually microwave the canned food at work, sometimes I'll go into the truck stop and ask if I can use their microwave, I try not to do this often.
o 9 per week
o $1.00 per can
o $9.00 per week
o $36.00 per month

Could you please give an idea what the canned goods were--any meat or meal items, or veggies and fruits? $1 per can great price compared to what I've purchased/observed in stores here, even the old standby tomato soup is over a dollar if not on sale. Thanks!

 

[John61CT]

Not at dollar stores.

And if you're truly in need, at most locations food pantries are willing to help transients.

 

[fantym1]

Hi, thought I'd add my 2¢:I stir fry ramen noodles alot, instead of rice - add about 1/2C water to skillet with the soy sauce (tamari/Bragg's Amino's, etc) & oil - then add whatever else. The crumbled-up noodles cook along with the rest & since I rarely have leftover cold rice, I can still have stir fry in a jif. Helps keep the food budget under $150/mo for gyp's & I.